A Review of 4 Years: Artist Marketing Resources Anniversary

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When I started this blog four years ago, someone said to me — “I don’t get it! Why would you do it for free?”

This is my response four years later: All my work blogging over the past 4 years has brought me so much, created content, promotional articles for artists, and shared opportunities to exhibit and sell art–while the entire time I continually researched and complied resources to provide to artists. My efforts have brought me so much! Many instances of making connections and contacts, developing my expertise, art sales, wonderful experiences, educational experiences, clients, cash donations, payments,gifts of art, and visibility, all come to mind.

My visibility via this blog also brought me an offer of a full scholarship to attend and complete an entrepreneurial Arts MBA graduate program.

Another past (and unsolicited) criticism I received on multiple occasion from a competitor who dropped in to leave an acidic *you’re too eclectic–you need to focus on one thing.” She’s wrong about that! Guess what? The head of the Arts MBA program told me that eclecticism is a sign of a true entrepreneurial spirit. So my eclecticism–articles, blogging, art, and online presence–marked me as an artist-entrepreneur, and brought that invitation to be one of the first to receive the Arts MBA scholarship ($30K USD).

Yes, I write arts journalistic articles, am a blogger, artist agent, art licensee, painter, and a poet. That’s me, who I am, and some of what I do. Those are the things I connect with and share on my blog.

Artist Marketing Resources blog now has over 20,800 followers and the Artist Marketing Resources LinkedIN group has over 2,400 member artists and art professionals.

Thanks to all the artists who have sent me notes of appreciation over the years and support this blog.

Happy 4th anniversary Artist Marketing Resources blog.

Ghost Photos by Yvette Worboys

This is as close as I get to a Halloween or Day of the Dead post.

My article first published as Ghosts – Photos Taken Inside Former Psychiatric Hospital Brings Photographer National Attention on Technorati.

Rejection Actually Makes You More Creative!

As an artist you have an independent mindset. You shrug off rejection and group thinking to go your own way.

When you do and experience more creative breakthroughs.

So, for you, a certain amount of rejection has positive results.

This is the conclusion of a study by research scientists at Cornell and John Hopkins University.

Read the article–Science Confirms The Obvious: Rejection Can Make You More Creative

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-10/rejection-can-make-you-more-creative-science-says

Self-Promotion Using Rubber Stamps! How easy!

My article about a clever campaign using rubber stamps that I wrote about for Technorati news was published last night as an exclusive. So I can’t repost the article here.

But you can read my article Ben Cohen’s Stamp Stampede: “Money’s Not Speech, Corporations Aren’t People!”

 on Technorati. It is a fun campaign with free ice cream and a fun and yes, legal money stamping campaign to spread the word!

Artists: Inside Info On How You Can Influence Online Arts Content

English: Screen Capture of article of front pa...

English: Screen Capture of article of front page of Yahoo! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m going to tell you how I get paid for the articles I write and publish. The purpose of this blog post is not to tell you how I get paid. Even though I do that. The purpose of this post is to let you know that you have more control over online content than you think!

How can you exert control over online content?

If you’re like me, you’ve signed up to receive notices in your email inbox or RSS feed when your favorite online authors publish new articles on such sites as Mashable, Huffington Post Arts, Yahoo! Movies, and many others.

You may wonder how authors are paid for their ideas and time researching and writing these articles. The answer may surprise you!

As contributing writer for both Yahoo! and Technorati News I am paid a dollar amount each time someone clicks on a link within my published articles. Those clicks represent my click-through rate.

Who pays me?

Yahoo! pays based on click-through-rate on links within my Yahoo! articles. I also receive a much lesser amount based on the total number of reader views that my article receives. Yahoo! deposits payments into my PayPal account. Yahoo! also provides extensive analytics so I can track my readership and earnings, and via those stats I can easily see what articles and article topics are the most popular and what links receive the most clicks. (Of course I want to get paid for my work, so I consider these stats when planning future articles).

Technorati news has a similar set-up. Since they are closely linked to Google–with all Technorati news articles feeding into Google news–Google pays me. Google pays varying amounts for each click on links within my published Technorati news articles. I track those clicks, readership numbers, and payment amounts per article via my Google AdSense account. (Again, the more success an article brings the more l will want to write on that topic in future articles and promote those articles enthusiastically).

So you are probably thinking that for each article authors must receive hundreds or even thousands of dollars in total clicks–but that is just not the case!

While hundreds or even thousands of readers may read any given article online, the number of clicks on links within an article is generally quite low. This is frustrating to all authors of online articles–even top authors! “We all have that problem,” one top author told me when I asked about improving click-through rates.

Why do hundreds of people read online articles without clicking on those internal links? This phenomenon is something that many experts have analyzed and written about in numerous articles on click-through-rates. This payment structure I have described is why you often see sensationalized,  rather silly or limited value content online—the authors are hoping to find a gimmick that will make their content a hit so that it will go viral and they will receive a large number of click-throughs and high total payment.

So what does this mean to you?

Think about it. Now you better understand the secret to exerting control over what gets published online!  

If you have favorite online authors you’d like to keep around and support, then thoroughly review their articles and click on those article links of interest to see where they go! Share the articles you like best with others via email. Use the share features to post articles to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and other social media site and include comments on why you like the article. You are exerting control over online content with each click and share. With each click you are paying those authors who provide the information you like and value. Your clicks bring attention to those articles, and attention both to the authors and the content subjects.  Remember, Google is watching and analyzing those stats you generate when you click. Google pays authors for each click, so you can be sure that they pay attention to where their money goes. It’s easy to let Google know what you like and value with each click.

You the reader have more control over online content than you think! If you want Google to place more value on art related content then support those authors who write on the arts by clicking on those internal article links and sharing those articles widely.

Want more online articles on your own artworks published?

Authors of articles value a well written press release that provides the full details and includes jpeg images. ( I am glad to receive these from artists.) Now that you know that most authors of online articles do not receive an hourly rate of pay, you understand how important it is for you to provide full details in your press releases and keep your website Newsroom up to date.

One artist, who didn’t even have a blog or website, once told me–”you can go around and search the web for information about me”, when I asked him for a press release.  WRONG! If you don’t have time to write a press release, I don’t have free time to do that for you, and neither do other authors of online content. If you want to become the subject of more online articles, get more exposure and visibility for your art, then it is up to you to organize,  present and provide your information.

Artists and Arts Organizations may send their press releases to me, Marie Kazalia, via email, at: MarieKazalia@gmail.com

SAMPLE ARTICLE: Here is the link to one of my recently published Technorati articles containing artist news.

Art Movement: Cynical Realism

 

The painting above, by Fang Lijun is an example of Cynical Realism, a contemporary movement in Chinese painting that began in the 1990s in Beijing and has become one of the most popular Chinese contemporary art movements in mainland China. The art movement Cynical Realism arose through the pursuit of individual expression by Chinese artists that broke away from the collective mindset that existed since the Cultural Revolution. The major themes of Cynical Realism tend to focus on socio-political issues and events since Revolutionary China(1911) to the present, usually with a humorous and post-ironic take on a realist perspective and interpretation of transition that Chinese society has been through, from Communism to today’s modernization.

Examples of art associated with Cynical Realism include the “bald head” paintings of Fang Lijun, Liu Wei, and Yue Minjun. View more in the Museum of Chinese Contemporary Art on the web.

EmFem Artists Daily News Features Artist Marketing Resources blog post

Yesterday, Artist Marketing Resources blog made top news story under Technology heading in Em Fems Artists Daily –  Newspaper.  Em Fems is a Twitter feed that supports female artists working across all media. Follow EmFems on Twitter: @EmFems

Do You Agree That the Whitney Biennial Should Come to an End?

Whitney Museum of American Art/New York

Image via Wikipedia

The 2012 Whitney Biennial opens on Thursday. The Arts and Labor group of the Occupy Wall Street movement has published a letter demanding an end to the biannual survey show in 2014. The group objects to the revered exhibition because “it upholds a system that benefits collectors, trustees, and corporations at the expense of art workers.”

Dear Whitney Museum of American Art,

We are Arts & Labor, a working group founded in conjunction with the New York General Assembly for #occupywallstreet. We are artists and interns, writers and educators, art handlers and designers, administrators, curators, assistants, and students dedicated to exposing and rectifying economic inequalities and exploitative working conditions in our fields through direct action and educational initiatives. We are writing to call for an end to the Whitney Biennial in 2014.

Read the letter in full here

What is behind the protest? One of the Whitney Biennial sponsors, a major auction house, has locked out art handlers who also lost their health care benefits while raking in hundreds of millions! The Whitney wrote and published an apology–read it here.

Whether you are concerned  or consider yourself *political* or not, the art world is changing and  it could be a good idea to keep abreast of changes.

The Guggenheim Museum’s 2 New Lines of House Paint

For artists who think that licensing their work is somehow wrong or too low brow an activity, consider what the Guggenheim has done to earn money.

They created two lines of house paint–Guggenheim Color by Fine Paints of Europe.

That’s right, the Guggenheim museum apparently found a way to earn a living selling house paint. I don’t know how the deal was set up, but perhaps it is an art licensing deal. Colors from the paintings in their collections–paintings by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Modigliani and others–are now manufactured in a new color line of house paints called Classical Colors.

For a second new paint line called Gallery Colors which contains 50 hues available in paint cans, the colors were inspired by colors used in Guggenheim exhibits and from the Frank Lloyd Wright designed museum building itself.

http://www.guggenheimcolorbyfpe.com/store/pc/home.asp

English: The Guggenheim (New York). Español: M...

Image via Wikipedia

Artists have long used house paints on their canvases. Now they can get Modigliani colors.

Blogger note: To find out more about licensing your artwork go here. For even more resources go here.

Modigliani nude sdraiato

Image via Wikipedia

Art World Etiquette at Openings

Etiquette (Casiotone for the Painfully Alone a...

Image via Wikipedia

Many artists have eccentric behavior. Sometimes this is charming and interesting for those dealing with the artists. There are also times when such eccentricities do not serve the artist in advancing his or her art career.

Some artists behaviors are extreme, and perhaps even counterproductive. In the print book How To Sell Art, by gallerist J. Jason Horejs, the author describes encounters with artists who rail at the wealthy–their very market of art buyers!

Save the rants and manifestos for the artist cafes. When you are showing and selling your art and talking to art collectors and art professionals that’s the time to behave like a business professional.

Read this 12 point list of Guidelines for Openings, an excerpt from the book I like your work: art and etiquette, by Andrew Berardini.

“A key aspect of career advancement is getting talked about,” and you want that talk to be positive. ”You do what works best to get what you want done and that’s how the game is played.”– from an article on Art World Etiquette: http://www.artbusiness.com/osoqutstar.html

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